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The long overdue Motorola ThinkPhone 25 has discreetly gone official early with unimpressive specs

Published: Oct 01, 2024, 4:53 AM

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Pretty much leaked in full just last week in anticipation of a rumored 2025 launch, the second Motorola ThinkPhone edition has been officially unveiled out of nowhere yesterday with almost no fanfare.

Confusingly labeled ThinkPhone 25 (or ThinkPhone 25), this highly anticipated new business-centric device is still likely to start selling to "everyday" mobile consumers at some point next year at an unknown price.

When they go big, Motorola goes small

How much did you like the expansive 6.6-inch P-OLED screen of the first-gen ThinkPhone released back in early 2023? Hopefully, not that much, because the ThinkPhone 25 is now confirmed to sport a significantly smaller 6.36-inch P-OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate technology and a "Super HD" resolution of 2670 x 1220 pixels.

Interestingly, that pixel count is actually up from what this bad boy's predecessor offers, which obviously yields a vastly improved 460 ppi density, but the refresh rate ceiling is down from 144Hz. Meanwhile, the peak brightness is set to jump from a respectable 1200 nits to an absolutely mind-blowing 3000 nits, so when all is said and done, the ThinkPhone 25 should look like a pretty major upgrade from a screen quality standpoint.

The ThinkPhone 25 comes with a relatively small but decidedly high-quality screen. | Image Credit -- Motorola

Still, that doesn't change the fact that you will need to settle for less screen real estate here, and with a display size reduction, a battery capacity downgrade is naturally all but guaranteed. The second-gen ThinkPhone packs a 4,310mAh cell supposedly capable of keeping the lights on for up to 34 hours of "regular" usage between charges.

That's a little lower than the 36-hour endurance claim of an original model with a nice and round 5,000mAh battery under its hood, which is not exactly a big step backwards, but it's clearly not ideal either.

The same goes for the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor inside this next-gen rugged smartphone, which currently powers mid-range devices like the Motorola Edge 50 Neo and CMF Phone 1, thus not sounding like the improvement over the first ThinkPhone's Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC many of you probably expected.

Durability and security remain the key ThinkPhone selling points

Because some things never change, the ThinkPhone 25 maintains its predecessor's MIL-STD-810H and IP68 standards for durability and toughness. Those numbers should provide peace of mind for water and dust immersion, as well as exposure to extreme weather conditions, low pressure, solar radiation, vibration, and various types of shock.

With state-of-the-art Corning Gorilla Glass 7i screen protection and a signature "Aramid fiber" back that Motorola claims is "stronger than steel", this refreshed ThinkPhone promises to handle drops on hard surfaces like an absolute champ too.

The stronger-than-steel construction of the ThinkPhone 25 looks awfully familiar. | Image Credit -- Motorola

Of course, there's no such thing as a totally unbreakable phone, and even if there was, something tells us it wouldn't weigh just 171 grams and measure 8.1mm in thickness. But the Motorola ThinkPhone 25 may well come close enough to that utopian unbreakability point to make some of you overlook its fairly obvious flaws and shortcomings.

That could prove especially true for mobile security enthusiasts, who will find Lenovo's ThinkShield technology built into the new ThinkPhone right out the box and routine security updates guaranteed for a whopping five years. That's certainly unusual for Motorola, and what's even more surprising is that you're also promised no less than five OS upgrades for a device naturally set to run Android 14 at launch.

The ThinkPhone 25 should bring a key overall camera performance enhancement over the "ThinkPhone 23" too with a 10MP telephoto sensor sitting alongside a 50MP primary snapper and 13MP ultra-wide-angle lens on its back instead of a tertiary 2MP depth sensor.

Together with 8GB RAM, 256GB internal storage space, 68W wired and 15W wireless charging, as well as dual stereo speakers equipped with Dolby Atmos technology, that makes for a decidedly respectable spec sheet when all is said and done... at the right price. Unfortunately, that particular puzzle piece continues to elude us, making it impossible to evaluate the potential mass appeal of the second Motorola ThinkPhone generation.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.